The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-06-18
Editorial 8riefs.
BY REV. I. M. ATWOOD, D. D.
Canton, N. Y.

AS DIR. GUNNIsoN has proposed the in
stitution of another theological school, it
may be expected by some that the schools
we already have will wish to say something
before the motion is voted on. We has
ten, therefore, to say in behalf of one Of
our theological schools, and the Oldest
and best endowed, that we support the
proposition of our Brooklyn brother. A
school of the kind he recommends would
be center for our cause in the South
and would go far to solve the problem Of
Universalist missions in the Southern
States. Nor do we have any fear that it
would affect ipjuriously the schools al
ready established. No, we shall never die
OF too much enterprise and too many mis-
sions.
We read with deep interest the reports
of the great meetings held by other denom-
nations to consider their missionary work,
home and foreign, and to legislate for it.
We are often, indeed we may say always,
impressed with the meagreness of the re-
suits in comparison to the outlay and to
the interest that the work excites. But
protracted study of the subject has con-
vinced us that the present results in the
missionary fields are no proper criterion
OF the value Of missions. What they do
In the home churches is their greatest re-
suit. They are perpetual source of en-
thusiasm and an unfailing spring of be-
nevolence; and where enthusiasm and
benevolence exist, decline, decay and
death never come.
Prof John Dewey, of the University
of Michigan, in the opening paper OF. the
June number of the AndoUer ReUieU,
takes issue squarely with the attempt to
construct system of morals on the basis
OF physical science. He AYERS that such
thing is impossible. The "data of
ethics are not in physical nature and, of
course, cannot be got out of it. The
cause of theology and morals is one, and
"whatever banishes God from the heart
of things, with the same edict excludes
the ideal, the ethical from the life of
man." Prof. Dewey directs his examina-
ton particularly to showing that an ideal
is indispensable alike to morals and to
religion, and that nature is entirely in
competent to supply an ideal. HIS rea-
soning is forcible, his grasp of the subject
complete, his analysis acute and his con-
illusions solid. We understand the paper
to be one of series. They will repay
study.
Such treatises as DR.. Samuel Harris's
"Self Revelation of God, "Dr. John Cairds
Philosophy of Religion" and such dis
QUESTIONS as those of Canon Freemantle
and DIR. Fairburn, show plainly enough
that ethics and psychology have got into
theology and that we are to hear more
and more of reason in religion. DIR. Har-
ris construes the selt-revelation of God
in his creation, and particularly in men,
in such a manner as to dispense with
nearly every characteristic dogma Of or
thodoxy. At the same time he supports
the great postulates of theism and the
great doctrines of Christianity with con-
vincing power. 1t is coming-the time.
when it will be recognized that the Chris
tian religion is indefensible on the prinoi-
pies of the evangelical SYSTEM"
We did not need the testimony of
Canon Wilberforce to assure us that
whisky is the curse of the Irish." The
vast sum they expend every year for
strong drink insures their poverty, even
If they were not otherwise burdened
But the money they waste is the smallest
part OF the curse. Whisky besots and
bestializss them, keeps them ignorant, de-
PRAYED and wretched. In this country,
too, whisky is the curse of the Irish. Nor
is the curse confined to their own race.
The very large extent to which the Irish
in all our great cities deal in liquor makes
them propagators of their curse.
But it is a relief to find that the whis-
ky curse does not keep its grip on all the
Irish in this country. As rule, the
longer they are in America the less do
minion does whisky have over them. In
the second generation they are often
wholly emancipated. Throughout the
Eastern and Middle States the Irish are
largely engaged in agriculture, and they
are as uniformly sober, industrious and
thrifty as the native stock. Whisky is
utterly impartial; it ruins a Yankee as
promptly as it destroys an Irishman.
-"The curse" is the sententious de-
scriptiOn adopted by many of the worst
victims of strong drink in London. They
feel that it is the sum of human misery.
1t is pathetic to learn that they are SO
convinced OF the close relation of intem-
perance to every form of sin. That they
"talk about the Christian life as though
they considered it to be chiefly deliver
ancs by the grace of God from the power
Of strong drink" There Is logic as we'll
as pathos in this view. You can do moth
ing with drunksId until you have made
him sober; and religion will not come in
unless rum goes out.
If the Rev. John P. Coyle's testimony
may be credited, it will not be altogether
safe for the American Board to accept
Presbyterian applicants without careful
scrutiny. The heresy of future proba.
ton" has penetrated Princeton. Like
other heresies it is not alone. "a tre-